Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 55 



alike for the haughty British officer in his scarlet 

 uniform, and for the reckless backwoodsman clad 

 in tattered homespun or buckskin. They remained 

 the owners of the villages, the tillers of the soil. At 

 first few English or American immigrants, save an 

 occasional fur trader, came to live among them. 

 But their doom was assured; their rule was at an 

 end forever. For a while they were still to compose 

 the bulk of the scanty population ; but nowhere were 

 they again to sway their own destinies. In after 

 years they fought for and against both whites and 

 Indians; they faced each other, ranged beneath the 

 rival banners of Spain, England, and the insur- 

 gent colonists ; but they never again fought for their 

 old flag or for their own sovereignty. 



From the overthrow of Pontiac to the outbreak 

 of the Revolution the settlers in the Illinois and 

 round Vincennes lived in peace under their old 

 laws and customs, which were continued by the 

 British commandants. 14 They had been originally 

 governed, in the same way that Canada was, by the 

 laws of France, adapted, however, to the circum- 

 stances of the new country. Moreover, they had 

 local customs which were as binding as the laws. 

 After the conquest the British commandants who 

 came in acted as civil judges also. All public trans- 

 actions were recorded in French by notaries public. 

 Orders issued in English were translated into 

 French so that they might be understood. Crim- 



14 State Department MSS., No. 48, p. 51. Statement of 

 M. Cerre (or Carre), July, 1786, translated by John Pintard. 



